It will be the purpose of this project to establish, and to evaluate the effectiveness of, a clinical anaerobic bacteriology service in the College of Dentistry. An important and unique aspect of the project is use of anaerobic techniques for isolation and identification which have been developed and used by the Virginia Polytechnic Institute Anaerobe Laboratory. These techniques have been demonstrated to be vastly superior to conventional anaerobic laboratory procedures in isolation, cultivation and identification of obligate anaerobes from clinical material. Specific objectives of the study include: 1. An evaluation of antibiotic sensitivity determination in treatment of oral infections. 2. A determination of the species of anaerobic bacteria which commonly produce oral infection. 3. An evaluation of the cost of anaerobic bacteriology service, the infections in which its use is justified, and the utilization of the service by various departments. Specimens studied will be those that lend themselves to isolations in which gross oral contamination can be avoided such as periapical and periodontal abscesses, infections in the course of root canal therapy, etc.